17 Engaging ideas for what to post on Twitter

Not sure what to post on Twitter? With every social media platform needing different strategies and content, it can be difficult to pinpoint what types of posts perform well on each.

Twitter is a unique platform. And while several types of content tend to do well, others should be reserved for more professional platforms such as LinkedIn or more primarily visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.

But we’ll guide you through 17 engaging ideas of what to post on Twitter that your audience will love.

Why you should be on Twitter

Let’s first consider the key demographics of Twitter users. Notice how the majority of users are teens and young adults up to 29 years old from urban or suburban areas.

If these demographics match your target audience, you should work to reach them on Twitter.

How often should you tweet

One thing many marketers wonder is how often they should be posting to different platforms. While we’ve previously covered the best times to tweet based on your industry, how often is a whole other story.

But as I’ve already mentioned, Twitter is a unique platform.

Its feed moves incredibly quickly, due to the Twitter algorithm, making this platform vastly different from other platforms.

While you might post on Facebook or Instagram once a day at most, Twitter best practices dictate that you should be posting at least 10 times a day, and even as often as 20-30 (or more!) times a day.

How to create and schedule tweets

As a marketer, it’s a good idea to schedule your social media content ahead of time so that you don’t have to worry about it as part of your day to day tasks.

Especially if you’re creating 10 to 20 different posts for Twitter every single day, you don’t want your entire day to be taken up just by tweeting.

Instead, using a tool like Sprout Social to manage your Twitter content and schedule Tweets ahead of time can help to free up a lot of your work hours.

Simply head over to the Publishing tab in your Sprout Social dashboard to start creating and scheduling your tweets. Add notes to your content calendar to flag any marketing campaigns, and organize your Tweets for the day, week or month.

What to post on Twitter

Now that we’ve covered how and how often to Tweet, let’s get you started with your own content creation ideas. While not every single one of these ideas will work for every business or industry, you should find enough inspiration to jumpstart your creativity.

1. Ask questions

Asking questions of your audience is a great way to garner engagement from your followers. It can be something relevant to your brand, or just something to get the conversation started, like you see in Degree’s tweet below.

2. Industry news

One type of content you should share across all platforms is important and/or interesting industry news. This is information your audience should be made aware of.

Whether it’s a simple article about people within your industry, such as the Brandwatch example below, a major change in regulations or even just a small algorithm change, you want to share this with your audience.

3. Brand announcements

Do you have exciting news to announce? An upcoming launch or new features that your audience is waiting for? How about a big testimonial or endorsements to share? This is absolutely content you want to share with your followers.

Better yet, you can pin this Tweet to the top of your profile for new visitors to see as well. Update this pinned Tweet as often as necessary, based on what announcements or industry news you want to share.

Since we’ve added YouTube to our publishing suite, we shared and pinned the announcement to the top of our Twitter feed for our followers to see.

4. GIFs and memes

Twitter’s short-form content rules – after all, we do only get 280 characters – have made storytelling through GIFs and memes a prominent element of Tweeting and marketing across the platform.

You’ll often see users incorporating GIFs (either branded GIFs or from the built-in GIF library) into their tweets and replies, sharing memes and even jumping on viral memes.

Check out how Chipotle took advantage of a viral meme going around Twitter.

See how you can incorporate this type of humor into your own Twitter content strategy, if it aligns with your brand voice.

5. Promo codes or flash sales

Sharing promo codes or sales on Twitter, especially if they’re exclusively available just to your Twitter followers, is a great way to increase engagement and sales.

Check out Wendy’s promotion of their new honey butter chicken biscuit that they’re offering free with any purchase.

Consider ways that you can also offer or promote ongoing sales and discounts on your own Twitter profile.

6. Blog content

The most frequently seen content type posted across nearly any platform is your blog content. After all, if you’re creating quality blog content, you want to then promote it and get as many people to read it as possible. Don’t be shy to Tweet your blog posts out. In fact, this may be a perfect time to test your content on Twitter to see how your audience responds to each.

7. Visual content

The above Tweet from Visme shares a visually appealing infographic from one of their blog posts to grab attention and increase clicks.

8. Tease launches

If you have an upcoming product launch or new features coming out, Twitter is a great place to tease them and let your audience know what to expect.

Coffeemate teased the upcoming release of their new flavors two months prior to their product launch to get their followers excited. This is a great way to ramp up conversations around your brand and what’s to come.

9. Events

If there’s a conference or networking event that your brand is participating in or attending, let your Twitter followers know! Also, live Tweeting with your audience is a great way to engage with industry leaders, specialists and attendees and to generate a conversation around session.

For example, Sitecore shared their Virtual Developer Day event for their followers to register and attend. And the branded hashtag for the even will allow Twitter followers and attendees to join the conversation on the event.

10. Social media holidays

Jumping onto relevant social media holidays – or even real holidays that your audience celebrates – is a great way to engage your audience.

Sally Hansen tweeted out a celebratory message in honor of International Women’s Day, complete with female empowered nail designs. This message is hyper-relevant to their audience, and is a great way to resonate with their followers online and customers buying their products.

11. Job openings

If your company is hiring, why not let your Twitter followers know so you can find new prospects that are already brand loyal? If you work in a specific niche or industry, chances are you followers are of that same industry and with valuable talent.

Notion shared a brand new job opening with their Twitter followers so that they would be the first to know about it.

12. Motivational quotes

Sharing a motivational #quoteoftheday or #qotd is a great way to share inspiration with your audience. Plus, people love quotes that speak to them, which increases the chances that they’ll Retweet it to their own feed.

Day Designer shared a gorgeously designed quote graphic with their Twitter audience, but you can also share motivational quotes sans imagery if you choose.

13. Trending topics

Twitter promotes trending topics that are being highly discussed on their platform in a given region, and sometimes it’s smart for brands to jump on these to increase reach as well.

The golden rule of trending topics is to always make sure you know exactly what the trending topic is about and that it’s relevant to your brand if you tweet about it. You don’t want to Tweet about a seemingly innocent trending topic that’s actually alluding to a serious issue and cause your brand to face backlash.

Because 2020 is both an election year and a census year, #Census2020 has been a promoted trending topic for a while. Many representatives, senators and non-government servants have been Tweeting about the census for several weeks, and are encouraging friends and followers to use their stay at home time productively.

Another way to find relevant trending topics for your brand is with Sprout’s trends report.

From your Sprout dashboard, head to the Reports tab of your Sprout dashboard in order to find trends that your brand tends to be mentioned with. These should both be safe and closely aligned with your brand, so could be good talking points in your content.

14. Products and services

A no brainer, right? Of course you want to promote your products and services on your Twitter Profile!

And while you definitely should incorporate this into your Twitter content strategy, remember that your content shouldn’t be solely focused on promotion. You also want your Twitter posts to engage and inform your audience.

Notice how Burt’s Bees creatively shared this post promoting their Goodness Glows Tinted Moisturizer. Come up with fun ways to share your products and services so your audience still engages with your content.

15. Tips

Your online presence is all about informing and educating your audience, whether it’s about your industry or about your products, so sharing tips on Twitter is a great place to start.

Remote shared these great tips for working remotely, but you can also share tips on how to use your product, step-by-step for signing up for services and more.

16. Testimonials

Show proof that people love your products or working with your business. If you have testimonials or reviews, share them on Twitter.

Covergirl shared a mention that their mascara got in an online publication, which is a great way to offer social proof to their audience.

17. Polls

Twitter has built-in polling capabilities, which means asking for feedback from your audience has never been easier. Plus, this is a great way to just ask fun questions and see how the answers turn out.

Casper polled their audience to see which side of the bed was most popular, with the right side barely taking the lead.

Start sharing your Twitter content ideas now

Get some great ideas from this post? Start drafting and scheduling your new content with Sprout. Build out your content calendar and monitor engagement metrics through the platform. Download our social media strategy template to help guide your content even further.

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Published on April 07, 2020

Chloe West: Chloe is a digital marketing manager and freelance writer, focusing on topics surrounding social media and digital marketing. She's based in Charleston, SC, and when she's not working you'll find her at brunch or hanging out with her son. Follow her on Twitter @ChloeWest28.

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